1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital television receiver, and more particularly to an apparatus and method of converting a storage format of audio/video data recorded in a hard disk drive of a digital television receiver or a set-top box.
2. Background of the Related Art
Recently, techniques and applications for recording digital broadcasting data on a hard disk drive that can be installed in a digital television (TV) receiver or a set-top box (STB) have been widely popularized and commercialized.
In current recording methods, a method in the related art encodes the existing National Television System Committee/Phase Alternation by Line (NTSC/PAL) type analog broadcasting data into a Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) stream and records the MPEG stream. A second method records the digital broadcasting data directly in a memory device. Namely, this method directly records the MPEG-2 transport stream (TS) having a maximum reproduction rate of 19.5 Mbps using a TS application which is a new digital TV application service different from a general digital video home system (D-VHS) appliance.
The second method has advantages because the TS application allows reproduction of the recorded broadcasting data without deterioration of a picture quality at any time and/or position selected by a user. However, the broadcasting data recording method in the related art using the TS application as described above has the following problems.
First, unlike a general video cassette recorder (VCR) tape, the data information recorded in the hard disk using the TS application is difficult to modify or manage. Second, since a volume of a program such as an MPEG-2 TS of a 19.5 Mbps grade requires a storage space of 14.4 GB for a standard of 100 minutes, recording of several volumes of programs in the hard disk using the TS application causes a problem due to the limited capacity of the hard disk.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve at least the problems and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a more efficient apparatus and method of converting the AV data storage format in a digital TV.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method which secures more storage space for recording data in a hard disk of a digital TV receiver.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method of converting the AV data storage format in a digital TV receiver which effectively compresses and records broadcasting data in a hard disk of the digital TV receiver.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the objects and in accordance with the purposes of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, an apparatus for converting an AV data storage format in a digital TV receiver comprises a first memory unit for temporarily storing an AV data transmitted from an external source; a second memory unit for storing the data temporarily stored in the first memory unit; a format converting unit for restoring the data stored in the first memory and the second memory, converting a format of the restored data in accordance with a storage format specified in a record reservation list, and compressing the format-converted data; and a record scheduler processing unit for controlling the format converting unit in accordance with a user request and pre-stored format converting information.
According to the present invention, the format converting unit converts data of a transport stream format received from an external source into a data of program stream (PS) format, and compresses the PS format data. Also, the format converting unit compresses the AV data stored in the first and second memory unit in a manner that a user can select a level of picture quality through a preview function while viewing a picture corresponding to the stored data, thereby allowing the user to view the picture at the selected level of picture quality.
In a method of converting an AV data storage format in a digital TV receiver in accordance to the present invention comprises searching whether a format conversion file is selected and searching a file list pre-stored in a record reservation list if a format conversion is requested; determining a new storage format by converting the format conversion file into a PS format data and lowering a picture quality of the PS format data by a preview function, if the format conversion file has not been selected or if a new format conversion file is selected by an external event; selecting one of either a pre-stored storage format or the determined storage format and checking whether a system resource required for converting the corresponding data into the format conversion file is sufficient; converting the corresponding data in accordance with the determined storage format if the system resource for converting the corresponding data is sufficient; inquiring to a user whether to make reservation if the system resource for converting the corresponding data is not sufficient; and storing in the record reservation list a reservation time and the storage format of the format conversion if the user accepts the reservation, and canceling the format conversion request if the user refuses the reservation.
According to the present invention, the space of a hard disk can be used more efficiently by converting data in a transport stream format into the program stream format and by lowering the picture quality of the data. Therefore, a large amount of broadcasting data can be recorded in a limited storage space of the hard disk.